[The influence of hypercholesterolemia and noise on human auditory function].

A cross-sectional study on occupational noise exposure and hypercholesterolemia was conducted in a group of 1.209 workers exposed to industrial noise. Clinical examinations and audiograms were compared in exposed and not exposed subjects to noise. There was a strong relationship between severe noise induced hearing loss and hypercholesterolemia in all de workers. But the relationship was not convincing when the workers were considered stratified in groups of age, because the number of hard of hearing labourers with high levels of cholesterol, increases as they get older. The AA, support the point of view that the age is an important confounding factor, and in their study there is no relation between noise induced hearing loss and hypercholesterolemia.